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In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders’s own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic.
A young witch teaches her mother how to do magic–with very unexpected results–in this relatable, resonant novel about family, identity, and the power of love.
Jamie is basically your average New England academic in-training–she has a strong queer relationship, an esoteric dissertation proposal, and inherited generational trauma. But she has one extraordinary secret: she’s also a powerful witch.
Serena, Jamie’s mother, has been hiding from the world in an old one-room schoolhouse for several years, grieving the death of her wife and the simultaneous explosion in her professional life. All she has left are memories.
Jamie’s busy digging into a three-hundred-year-old magical book, but she still finds time to teach Serena to cast spells and help her come out of her shell. But Jamie doesn’t know the whole story of what happened to her mom years ago, and those secrets are leading Serena down a destructive path.
Now it’s up to this grad student and literature nerd to understand the secrets behind this mysterious novel from 1749, unearth a long-buried scandal hinted therein, and learn the true nature of magic, before her mother ruins both of their lives.
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Not currently reading because reasons but just wanted to post at how happy it makes me that the biggest publishing event in Ireland in a long time is Sally Rooney’s new novel.
This is the discount book shop near me, there are two more “literary” ones near it and they have displays too.
But the fact that even the cheap shop we used for kids stationery, Christmas decorations, and discounted Diary of a Wimpy Kid books has a big display for a socialist feminist local novelist gives me the feels.
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I really enjoy her work! I’m looking forward to reading this one!
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Man, I love House of Leaves. I’m jealous you’re reading it for the first time. The act of having to physically fight the book, almost, to read it is quite something.
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Like wrestling the Minotaur in the labyrinth?
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Heh. Kinda I guess. The weird text layouts are reminiscent of Alfred Bester and/or Hubert Selby Jr. ,kinda, but really stepped up a level, because of the physicality of having to turn the book sideways or, upside down, or round and round. And it’s genuinely creepy. I should dig my copy out and read it again.
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I’m just getting to the part with the text getting funky like that, and it being right after the discussion of labyrinths and the Minotaur myth, and the footnotes getting kind of labyrinthine, put that in mind.
Genuinely creepy is right. I love it.
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I am very very very late to this but better late than never because, two thirds of the way through, i think it might be a masterpiece. I am aware that the crazy sets in with the sequels and that, much like Dune, this first one is all you really need.
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I really dug Simmons’s The Terror (also dug the miniseries) so I really need to get on reading Hyperion.
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It is a great read. For years my mom would ask me about this book with the girl getting younger and the wagons with sails, and I just could not figure out what the heck she was thinking of. Then I reread this and knew it was the one.
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Ahh i definitely need to read that, i loved the miniseries.
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I’ve seen the part where he discusses his chapter on Israel as an apartheid state, and where he jousts with an asshole, who would never be that vociferous with a defender of Israeli policies and practices regarding Palestinians. Made me wonder if he takes courage (again) from Baldwin’s brave tv appearances.
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I’m watching this now… gonna watch his Daily Show appearance next…
I suspect that Baldwin is a huge influence on Coates career in general, but especially in his willingness to go on white dominated media and discuss these topics. Here, it’s interesting that they start out talking about how Coates doesn’t enjoy this part of the process of writing, yet here he is. It’s clear he cares about trying to keep pushing us to understand and improve our society and the world. But anyone trying to have these controversial discussions on American TV are certainly treading on Baldwin’s path…
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I’ve long thought Baldwin is a predecessor and/or hero for him (how could he not be!). The Fire Next Time is a direct influence on/model for Between the World and Me.
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Okay… now I’m watching this…
One more interview…
